Jorito

It sure is! It's just that all activity is happening on the album Discord. Feel free to join there and discuss further: https://discord.gg/sTxxktNE

Thanks for all the kind words, guys!

Claiming sheet seems to confirm that you did. Welcome aboard, buddy!

I'm not a commercial games composer, but I'd say it really depends on the type of game and the overall sound needed to make that game work. You already mentioned a few (pixel based) games that work well with retro sounds, and then sample quality isn't really a thing (especially if you're just using/emulating old sound chips). A modern looking game will usually require a more modern sound, with more polished samples though. It's just expectations that people will have, based on a game's art style and gameplay, I guess. But at the end of the day -in my opinion- the samples are just a tool, and it's the composition and arrangement and how you write for/use your samples that will make a big difference. Better samples just make your life easier.

The Loser is still free, so if you’re okay with the disc theme (calm with a cultural bent), why don’t you hop over to the album Discord so we can talk further? https://discord.gg/PvRJhgax

Despite this forum topic not being very busy (since 99% of the activity is happening on the album Discord), rest assured we’re making good progress on the album and just had our first WIP check-ins. There’s also still a bunch of cool unclaimed tracks, so if you feel you could do something interesting with them and fit the album disc theme, feel free to join the Discord and hit us up!

It's not that difficult IMO. If you host your game somewhere where people can pay for it (even if it's a voluntary donation), then money comes into play (the 'environment' Larry was talking about), and when there's money involved, you just get a different type of discussion. Artists made the tracks to be enjoyed for free, and if somebody suddenly uses your free material and makes money off of it, it's just not cool. I have had it happen to me (somebody stole some of my remixes and from a few other people, compiled it on an album and sold it on Amazon and the like). It's just a dick move that you don't want to make. Summary: if it's a for-free thing, you're good. If there's money involved, check with the artists first because they either might insist on a piece of the pie (no matter how big or small) or just not be okay with you using their work in such a way. It all boils down to respecting the artists as well as the OCR community and submissions guidelines and to not abuse them.

I'm not sure if he's available at the moment, but I have worked with @JohnStacy many times in the past (French horn is his main, but he's like a one-man brass army), so it might be good to reach out to him, see if he's interested.

I marked it down for you, don’t forget to add that bit of cultural flair to it, as per the disc’s theme Also, the Discord (see above) is the best place to claim a track, share WIPs and just chat about the album or other things (also writing this for other people who might be interested in doing a track).

Yay! Let's get going! Looking forward to contribute another one or two tracks to this album myself too

I'm super partial to Super Cartography Brothers' "It's-a-me" from Funk Fiction, it's my jam (to the extent that I tried to emulate some of that sound in a Crash Bandicoot track I did). But yeah, that album is great!

A very simple idea that usually works is just to take parts of the melodies of the songs you want to mash up (like 2-4 bars, or maybe just 1-2 phrases) and glue them together into a new melody that flows nicely. So take 1-2 phrases from song A and put them in your track, follow that by 1-2 phrases from song B, then 1-2 phrases from song A again, etc. It will help if you puzzle out a structure that makes sense (e.g. use 2 phrases from each song from the verses, and 2 other phrases for the chorus). Or, what you could do, is take part of the melody from song A and use that as your verse, and use part of the melody of song B and use that as your chorus. A bit simpler, but can be very effective. At the end of the day it’s just playing around with it, messing with it until you have something that sounds good. Anything goes, no clear cut recipe. Just gotta try and try and try and eventually you’ll have something that works.

Of course the best album has to be &Knuckles ;) On a more serious note, it's hard to rate any absolute favorite for me, but it would be a toss up between Balance & Ruin and Super Cartography Brothers for me, I think. Probably followed by a long list of honorable mentions.

There's still this track that I did for this album originally that I'd love to have on the album. Mightcould also make another track, depends a bit on time and inspiration

Thanks for the update, and no worries. Focus on healing and recovering, the album can wait a while longer